Honest Abe meets the Digital Age

AT&T funding 3-D online platform for Lincoln library and museum

November 16, 2012|By Michael Holtz, Tribune Reporter

Donna and Max Daniels, portraying Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln, are introduced to a fantastic gadget from the future by manager Lindsay Wadelton at the AT&T store in downtown Chicago. (Zbigniew Bzdak, Tribune photo)

In the latest sign of Americans' obsession with Abraham Lincoln, AT&T has awarded a $97,500 grant to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to digitize part of its collection.

On Thursday, representatives from both organizations announced the project at AT&T's flagship store on Michigan Avenue. A Lincoln impersonator greeted shoppers as they peered at a collection of original artifacts — the president's quill pen, inaugural inkwell and a telegram to his wife — sealed in a glass case.

Visitors to the online database, "Under His Hat," http://www.underhishat.org, can view three-dimensional photographs of some of the 16th president's most iconic possessions. About 60 of the collection's 52,000 historical materials are viewable online, including Lincoln's stovepipe hat and the bloodstained gloves he carried the night he was assassinated. A homework assignment provides a glimpse of his childhood while campaign memorabilia retraces his life as a budding politician.

James Cornelius, the collection's curator, said the digital portal was designed as an educational tool for teachers. The website includes suggested lesson plans under five different themes. Cornelius said it would eventually feature three more.

"The point of doing this three-dimensionality is to bring out what they call material culture studies," he said. "If you're going to learn about Mr. Lincoln's hat, you're going to learn something about the fur trade, manufacturing, and even style and fashion."

Carla Knorowski, CEO of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, said the project allowed the Springfield museum to reach a global audience. She welcomed German scholars and Japanese students to explore the digital collection.

"It's a perfect marriage of history and cutting-edge technology," she said.

Though the website launched during the summer, AT&T Illinois President Paul La Schiazza said the national release of the Lincoln biopic this weekend provided a timely opportunity to promote it.